First up is the Hailstorm – Thunder Pistol prototype bonus. This weapon is being handed out to those who have clocked time in both Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Starting today and continuing through December 31, all players who own either game will receive an epic prototype the pistol, which features a three-round burst. It also comes with two perks: Whirlwind, a fast cycling auto burst that increases recoil, and Focus which reduces idle sway while aiming down sights.

The Genesis Holiday map is also on the way. Later this month, Infinite Warefare players will find the map waiting for them as “the Headquarters for the Division of Mechanical Evolution gets a festive new look.” Plus there will be a 24/7 Genesis Holiday playlist.

Also, come December 21, player will be handed gifts every day in Infinite Warfare just for logging into the game. The freebies range from large Salvage and Key bonuses, to winter-themed personalization items. There’s even some exclusive winter-themed Common, Rare, and Legendary prototypes. Each reward is available for one day only.

The free goodies will be handed out for twelve days, ending on January 1.

More announcements are promised soon along with additional bonuses including Double XP events and more.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/12/08/free-pistol-genesis-holiday-map-and-more-freebies-coming-to-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare/feed/0The six remaining Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered maps will land next weekhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/12/08/the-six-remaining-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-maps-will-land-next-week/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/12/08/the-six-remaining-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-maps-will-land-next-week/#respondThu, 08 Dec 2016 19:51:31 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=612065Those who own Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered will receive the remaining six remastered maps for the game next week.

When Modern Warfare Remastered launched last month, it included ten remastered maps from the original game.

All you need to do in order to grab the new items is trade in your Keys or Call of Duty Points to the Quartermaster and start building some new loadouts.

The video provides a better look at what’s available this week.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/12/07/the-quartermaster-in-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-has-some-new-items-in-stock/feed/0Pokemon Sun and Moon the biggest games of 2016 at GameStop, Call of Duty underperformedhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/23/pokemon-sun-and-moon-the-biggest-games-of-2016-at-gamestop-call-of-duty-underperformed/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/23/pokemon-sun-and-moon-the-biggest-games-of-2016-at-gamestop-call-of-duty-underperformed/#respondWed, 23 Nov 2016 09:08:53 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=609497GameStop’s recent earnings report show a decline in sales during one of the busiest months of the year for new releases.

GameStop published earnings report for the quarter ended October 29. The retailer saw a drop of 2.8 percent year-over-year in global sales, due in part to underperformance from games released in the “last few weeks of October”.

As reported by Gamespot, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon performed the best out of any game at the retailer all year. Pre-orders for the pair were the highest for any game at the retailer in the last five years.

On the opposite end, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare underperformed. Call of Duty games have traditionally been one of the retailer’s best-selling titles each year.

For hardware, the GameStop said that PS4 Pro is off to “a strong start”, and PSVR was still selling well, only staying on shelves for an average of ten days.

The upcoming Nintendo Switch is tracking well so far, too, according to the report. 27 percent of GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards members who are aware of the console, plan to buy it. This is in line with what the data Xbox One had at a similar point in time.

“Both Titanfall and Infinite Warfare suffer from the fact that, visually, they could easily be the same game.”

War, as they say, war never changes. With two mighty shooters entering the arena within a fortnight of each other, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this year’s battle is between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Bollocks. Comparing those two games is like comparing Battleborn with Overwatch: there are surface-level similarities, but the gulf between gameplay is vast.

The real fight is between Infinite Warfare and Titanfall 2. And with pretty good reason, since both are built on defining the modern-day fast and fluid FPS. Chuck in some future war BS, a couple of mechs, and the ability to run at a 45-degree angle and what you have is the same game, right?

Well…

The Future vs. …The Future

This isn’t a versus at all, because there’s literally no difference between the games. Like, just imagine what the future holds – all the cool tech we’ll have like flying cars, biotic implants that let us take photos with our eyes, you know, interesting stuff like that. Now forget it, because the future in first-person shooters is mandated to be uber-dull and samey. Something both Titanfall 2 and COD do perfectly, with their indistinct art design. Sure, Titanfall does have a slightly fantastical art style now and COD has interstellar travel, but both still suffer from the fact that, visually, these could easily be the same game. Cliché sci-fi checklist initiated: skeletal robots, everything made from metal panels, spaceships that go whoosh…

Story and narrative

As if you play these games just for the single-player experience. Let’s put the stories into a Star Wars perspective: In Titanfall 2, you play as the Rebels; in Infinite Warfare, you’re the Empire.

But Titanfall 2 is a surprisingly emotional buddy story of a man and his Titan (emotional in that cheap, Hollywood popcorn-movie way; it won’t change your life – hell, the relationship barely changed the protagonist’s life). The story in Infinite Warfare is something about terrorists, explosions and dog fights in space? It’s not that the it’s poorly told, it’s that you just won’t care. The real problem with both is that, in the far-flung future, there is only good and evil, and absolutely no grey area between them. This is partly because of…

Jack Cooper vs Nick Reyes (and all the other nobodies)

These personality-free chumps, a rookie and a veteran, are just as interesting as their blandly ‘heroic’ names imply. Chances are, you won’t remember any characters from the games except Titanfall’s star player, the epic mech BT-7274. Maybe. I’d love to go in-depth here, but the pool’s just too damn shallow.

Jet-boosting and wall-running

Because verticality is where it’s at, man. If you’ve played Blops III and Halo, then congratulations – you’ve just played Infinite Warfare, because the mechanics are near-identical. Mind you, if you’ve played Titanfall, then you’ve played Titanfall 2, with its ‘don’t break what ain’t broke’ attitude. The way the games use the jet pack ability in solo mode flows right through to the multiplayer – across the board, Titanfall 2’s levels are playgrounds designed to take serious advantage of the gimmick, chaining jumps that play out like an FPS platformer. In COD, you’ll use a jet pack to jump over a particularly wide crevice. So, with its familiar, tight map design, Call of Duty’s multiplayer opts for more grounded gameplay, one that’s very literally boots-on-the-ground until you jet-boost out the way of a camper’s bullet. You want to clamber on top of that pillar, son? Go to hell, use it for cover or don’t use it at all.

Payloads vs Titans

“Infinite Warfare’s combat rigs are variety central once you start unlocking the more creative payloads that can teleport you in a blink or turn you into a snickering hound.”

Your ultimate ability in these games can ‘turn the tide of battle’, which is marketing speak for ‘kill a few goons if you’re lucky or skilled.’ It all boils down to choosing the right get-up for your playstyle – these are classes, no more, no less.

In Titanfall 2 you earn titans. Big bastard brutes that can shatter bones with a single step. You’ve got your snipey titan, your tanky titan, all with their own set of weaponry, traits and perks, but all still finger-on-the-trigger types. Infinite Warfare’s combat rigs, however, are variety central. Sure, at first the differences are negligible (trading one gun for another) but once you start unlocking the more creative payloads that can teleport you in a blink or turn you into a snickering hound, it becomes a more considered choice as to what sort of class to play.

Weapons and loadouts

Remember back when we imagined all the cool stuff the future will have? Just imagine how much cooler all the weapons will be then. They’ll have shotguns and SMGs and assault rifles and… all the stuff in every FPS ever. I’m not saying let’s get rid of safe, traditional ballistics (I’d be lost without my trusty suppressed assault rifle), but to throw some imagination into the mix.

This is the future, you can literally thrust any made-up weapon in our hands and we’ll nod it through. Even the powerful anti-titan weaponry is a carbon copy of every other gun you’ve ever used in a futuristic shooter. Oh, okay, Call of Duty does feature anti-gravity grenades – something you’ve never, ever seen in any other game, ever. Unlocks are pretty straightforward for both (some might say identical to the point of uninspired plagiarism): make kills with a gun to rank it up and get attachments. Then Titanfall 2 tosses a curveball in the mix, and not only can you equip scopes, but add additional abilities like shooting while sprinting, and other skills you’ll never do but think you might. And yet, although they’re really not, Titanfall 2’s loadouts somehow feel so much more streamlined than Infinite Warfare’s overwhelmingly choice-focused Pick-10 system.

Zombies vs other game modes that aren’t Zombies

Zombies, also known as Carpentry Simulator, is still just as great/boring as you remember, depending on your tastes. Sure, Call of Duty didn’t invent horde mode, but it gives us all a solid holiday from slaughtering other players, and it was Zombies’ success that pretty much gave us all those horde modes in all those other games (or, in the case of the upcoming Metal Gear Survive, the only mode in a game).

The Zombies mode has always been a little out-there compared to the rest of COD’s po-faced offering, but this time they’ve kicked it up a notch further – it’s so much more self-aware, self-referential, with its 1980s movie theme and intentionally cheap kids cartoon opening. And Titanfall 2 just can’t compete, with its seven basic, so very basic, modes compared to Infinite Warfare’s eight, not including diversions like the underappreciated Gun Game and Infected. Although the odds of finding someone else playing much else beyond TDM is on par with lottery wins and beating Dark Souls without being struck in combat.

Titanfall 2 vs Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – the verdict

“Titanfall 2 serves up everything that Call of Duty kinda sorta wants to be, but doesn’t have the courage to commit to.”

In war, there are no winners. But this ain’t war, it’s video games, and while neither are reinventing the FPS genre, Titanfall 2 is more original in its unoriginality. It builds on the first game’s wicked-sweet controls. It’s effortless and effortlessly fun, as you chain together a series of moderately challenging jumps and wall-runs before raining down death from above on your enemies (or the frankly useless AI, if you’ve nothing better to kill). And nothing beats that omnipotent feeling of clambering into a titan.

In short, Titanfall 2 serves up everything that Call of Duty kinda sorta wants to be, but doesn’t have the courage to commit to – because the suits are too busy making sweet and tragic love to a formula that worked for years to be able to fully reinvigorate the series. COD made its biggest mistake not by shamelessly ripping off Titanfall’s futuristic fast-flowing, free-running style in Advanced Warfare and two subsequent and very similar games, but by trying to squeeze the concept of verticality into the existing and (overly?) familiar template – a square peg in a round bullet hole. There are some fine ideas in COD, like space-based dog-fights and delightfully silly multiplayer modes, and the shooting’s as spot-on as it always was, but compared to Titanfall 2, Infinite Warfare feels as old as Captain Price’s balls.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/18/titanfall-2-versus-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-which-sci-fi-fps-is-better/feed/0Dishonored 2, Civilization 6 and Obsidian’s Tyranny top the weekly Steam Chartshttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/15/dishonored-2-civilization-6-and-obsidians-tyranny-top-the-weekly-steam-charts/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/15/dishonored-2-civilization-6-and-obsidians-tyranny-top-the-weekly-steam-charts/#respondTue, 15 Nov 2016 21:23:53 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=608472A new contender knocked Civilization 6 out of its comfy top spot this week on the Steam Charts.

It was pre-orders for Dishonored 2, and the new title from Arkane Studios slotted twice on the chart, as did Civilization 6.

The entire chart for the week ending Sunday, November 13 is below.

Dishonored 2

Coming in at the top of the list was the new entry starring Corvo and Emily. Pre-order sales were enough to make it the best-selling item on Steam, and it’s sixth place entry can be attributed to the game’s release on Friday, November 11.

Civilization 6

Coming in second and fifth is the turn-based strategy game that hasn’t left the charts since its release. The standard edition and the Deluxe Edition, respectively, have both remained best-sellers for weeks.

Tyranny

At number three and released last Thursday on November 10, Tyranny is a story-rich, adventure RPG from Obsidian published by Paradox Interactive. It features branching, stories decisions with far-reaching consequences, classic RPG combat, and an original setting. It has a “very positive” user rating on Steam, and there are three different editions of the game available.

Football Manager 2017

Charting once again this week, this time in fourth pace, is the latest in SEGA’s sports simulation series. Here, players control of a football team and manage them, obviously.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

In ninth place is Infinity Ward’s latest in the Call of Duty franchise. The standard entry came in fifth last week, snuggled in between GTA 5 and Skyrim Special Edition. The pre-orders landed in ninth (or was it the other way around?) and in tenth was the Infinite Warfare Digital Deluxe Edition. Still, that’s a lot of Infinite Warfare.

Transport Fever

This is a railroad focused tycoon game where players start in 1850 and build up a thriving transport company. As an emerging transport tycoon, the player constructs stations, airports, harbors and makes money by connecting areas requiring transport services. Think of it as being similar to Roller Coaster Tycoon, or any tycoon game for that matter. only with trains, planes, buses, ships and other machinery which can haul people or wares or other stuff we imagine.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

A mainstay on the charts. It is given.

Rainbow Six Siege

Finally, in tenth place is the tactical shooter from Ubisoft. Last weekend was a free to play one, and the game was also on sale for half price so its entry on the chart isn’t surprising. Plus, the new Operation Red Crow expansion was given a release date.

Top 10 for the week ending October 30 in list format.

Dishonored 2 – Pre-orders

Civilization 6

Tyranny

Football Manager 2017

Civilization 6

Dishonored 2

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Transport Fever

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/15/dishonored-2-civilization-6-and-obsidians-tyranny-top-the-weekly-steam-charts/feed/0Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered has plenty of hidden weapons and fans aren’t sure whyhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/15/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-has-plenty-of-hidden-weapons-and-fans-arent-sure-why/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/15/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-has-plenty-of-hidden-weapons-and-fans-arent-sure-why/#respondTue, 15 Nov 2016 12:06:34 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=608268There are many weapons in Modern Warfare Remastered that you can’t use, even though they’re mostly ready.

Modern Warfare Remastered players on PC have went digging into the game’s files and found a few hidden weapons that are not yet available for everyone. These weapons can be used, provided you know what you’re doing.

Reddit user Semyel managed to find ten of these, including a shovel. Some aren’t fully textured, but all of them have functioning animations and sounds. There’s even a new versions of the Desert Eagle.

It’s not clear why these weapons are left in the game’s files. One theory fans have is that they may have been initially intended to be in multiplayer but were later axed. Certain weapons did turn up in Modern Warfare 2 later, so they could just be leftover from the original CoD 4.

Others believe Activision could be planning to add them later as DLC, since they have gone through the trouble of remaking them with modern graphics.

You can take a look at all the ones dug up in the gallery below:

The Redditor even captured video of the shovel, as well as the Kamchatka auto shotgun. Activision has been taking YouTube videos down, though, so these links are that’s left.

Perhaps we’ll find out before the end of the year if the upcoming map drop will include any new weapons.

If you pre-ordered any edition of Infinite Warfare, the zombies experience came with the game, so you’re good to go.

Zombies in Spaceland is the survival co-op mode announced along with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare back in August. It takes place at a 1980s space-themed Amusement Park which is overrun with the living dead – and looks like neon hell.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was released last week on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/11/its-a-double-xp-weekend-for-call-of-duty-infinite-warfares-zombies-in-spaceland/feed/0Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and the problem with remaking old gameshttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/08/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-and-the-problem-with-remaking-old-games/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/08/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-and-the-problem-with-remaking-old-games/#respondTue, 08 Nov 2016 14:10:49 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=607172You don’t know what you want.

“You wouldn’t want to upset the fanbase. They already hate the other game they’re forced to buy in order to play this.”

In the lead-up to the launch of Modern Warfare Remastered, it was hard to miss the noise people excited to play the game were making, so anxious to get back into a remake of this nine-year-old game. Most of them probably even clocked over a hundred hours in the original, and that only made the remake’s release even more of an event.

Part of this is born from the disappointment that surrounds recent Call of Duty releases, particularly a result of a quest to change-up the series’ dated formula by injecting more sci-fi mechanics into it. “Boots on the ground” is the phrase you’ve no doubt seen and heard, to the point that even Activision and Infinity Ward started using it when referring to Infinite Warfare, a game that’s taken this double-jumping and wall-running trend the community has grown to hate so much to its extremes.

It was clear everyone was yearning for the good old days of Call of Duty, whether it be disgruntled long-time fans, or simply those fed up of seeing three different Call of Duty games go the sci-fi route.

There was a sentiment that stood out to me the most, a stark attitude ardent fans adopted since learning of the remaster’s existence. These people wanted the exact same 2007 game, they just wanted it to have the looks of a 2016 one.

Fans went as far as preemptively calling out “haters” and “detractors” before the thing even came out, telling them that they’re fully aware of the original game’s overpowered perks, unbalanced guns and camping spots, and that they’re completely happy to see them return untouched.

Newcomers, or fans of the original who possess a form of common sense, were definitively told to never raise any of the game’s long-standing issues, for the sole reason that this is how things were back in the day. Ironic, when some of these very same defenders complain about the exact problems in modern Call of Duty games.

The message was clear; those players don’t want innovation in this 2016 remake, they want the same exact game they played years ago. Anything else would be an insult.

This sort of attitude didn’t surprise me. I understand the fear of remasters “ruining” an experience players have come to know and love. The only problem is, with multiplayer games, if something was frustrating back then, it’s going to be doubly so now. And in my mind, this completely misses the point of a remake.

It took the original game’s community months to devise the most annoying and spammy loadouts, and it took even longer for them to identify overpowered tactics and weapons. With the remaster, all this knowledge is available on day one. The process you go through with any multiplayer game, from everyone starting out unaware of the best equipment and tactics, trying everything out for fun, to eventually distilling the available options to the most effective few, is all gone.

You were robbed of the maturation you go through alongside multiplayer games before you even bought the remaster. It’s the same thing that happens when you decide to get into a multiplayer game years after launch.

Once the lustre wears off, you’ll begin to remember the nightmare of grenade launchers, M16s, Juggernaut, and Last Stand, and there’ll be nothing you can do about it. There are no counters to most of these, there’s a reason why they frustrated many, and a reason why they’re considered the best options. All that has been well figured out years ago, bringing in new players doesn’t mean you’ll be starting afresh.

This is what my time with Modern Warfare’s multiplayer have been; an exercise in frustration and rage over the same damn problems that got me riled up back then. It made me realise that the ultimate objective of this remaster was to make it as archaic and outdated as possible, just with a modern coat of paint.

But you wouldn’t want to upset the fanbase. They already hate the other game they’re forced to buy in order to play this.

I just can’t enjoy the old Modern Warfare multiplayer today, because I am not the same person I was in 2007. The shooter scene isn’t the same it was back then, either. Myself, as well as others, have since played countless hours of many other multiplayer shooters that it’s impossible to just ignore all of that and get along with poor design decisions just because they’ve somehow turned Classic with age.

“Modern Warfare Remastered is a remake, at least in the graphics and sound department, which absolutely makes the gameplay seem that much more outdated.”

I suppose in that way it’s exactly the Modern Warfare I remember. Playing it in this state today, after all the progress the industry has made in design, feel, and fun, makes me feel like we’re throwing away all of that in favour of a short-lived nostalgia trip.

Maybe if Modern Warfare Remastered had received a slight graphical touch-up and was just a pre-order bonus for Infinite Warfare, maybe then it would have made sense to keep everything as it was. But Modern Warfare Remastered is a remake, at least in the graphics and sound department, which absolutely makes the gameplay seem that much more outdated.

How long will it take those who were swooning over the idea of not making any changes to realise that they can’t enjoy this in 2016?

However long this may take and however many will eventually admit that what they wanted wasn’t the right choice, one thing will remain the same: Activision missed a golden opportunity to remake this seminal shooter into something fit for 2016 design standards.

The news comes via Windows Central, citing an anonymous source at first and then following up with a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson: “We support cross-play between devices and platforms for partners who want to enable it.” Apparently Activision didn’t want to.

The good news is Microsoft will give you your money back of you buy Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare from the Windows 10 Store and then realise you have nobody to play with. One user who got a refund told Motherboard they found just two players in the generally popular team deathmatch playlist – two! – and there’s a screenshot to verify it. Microsoft politely gave their money back without any dramas.

At time of writing, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare had 4,242 players on Steam with a daily peak concurrence of 11,122, which is healthy if not spectacular. Multiplatform, it’s not selling as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 did. Keep it in perspective, though – an off year for Call of Duty is still usually means five or six times the sales of any other blockbuster.

Still, it’s fun to speculate on the lull this year. Is it Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s science fiction leanings? The unfortunate coincidence of Battlefield 1 going further back in time? The fact that Battlefield had a very strong launch instead of the usual disaster? The apparently excellent Titanfall dropping so soon after?

One thing I do know: it’s never wise to declare that Call of Duty is over. People were saying that right before Modern Warfare 2, y’know?

Narrative director Taylor Kurosaki talked about the game’s single-player campaign in an interview with GameSpot, saying, “In a lot of really well-received war stories, the story really centers on you and your squad, what you guys are going through, how you have each other’s backs, and how the pressures of the war and the enemy hunting you can reveal things about your true nature…to see what the pressures of this particular war do to those relationships, we wanted to explore those things.

“Now, that doesn’t mean that we forego set pieces. We still have, I think, the best set pieces in the business, but in this case, if we can create characters that you appreciate, if we can create characters that you identify with, and that you care about, then those exact same set pieces, that same bombast gets brought up. It raises the intensity level because you really, really are concerned about what’s going to happen next.

“For me, and for a lot of the guys that started here, at the start of Infinite Warfare, we were really excited about the prospect of working with a team that’s known for making these awesome, incredible set pieces, but imbuing those set pieces with maybe some more meaning and maybe caring more. We thought that that would pay off.”

Addressing the new setting, Kurosaki expanded on how the expanse of space played a part in narrative.

“To break it down really simply, as storytellers, we are always searching for incredible sources of pressure to put on our characters…with Infinite Warfare, having a lot of the missions take place outside of our breathable atmosphere, that just puts even more pressure on you. Now, you have an environment that’s trying to kill you as well…We’re always looking for those ultimate sources of pressure because when you have those ultimate sources of pressure, all the niceties go out the window. All of the courtesies can go out the window and you really know what makes a person tick.”

Infinite Warfare’s campaign strives to create a bond between the player and the protagonist and Kurosaki is confident that Infinity Ward has done just that.

“You’re going to feel invested in the story, you’re going to feel invested in the game, and hopefully, the mechanics of the game. What we really want, ultimately, is we want that controller in your hand to sort of vanish. To sort of disappear. We want you to just feel like you are occupying this world, and you are going on this journey along with this guy. You’re actually doing it by standing in his boots, and seeing the world through his eyes.”

So it’s a bit of a surprise to see that sales of Infinite Warfare in the UK are down 48.4% compared to last year’s Black Ops 3 launch. The latter did have the benefit of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 to bump its numbers, but accounting for the extra platforms, sales are still down by almost 44% according to Gfk Chart Tracker.

Whether the drop in numbers is down to disgruntled players who have jumped ship with the introduction of what some might call a pay-to-win multiplayer model, or just simply fatigue with the series is anyone’s guess, but the title still managed to debut at the top of the charts.

Update: As pointed out by Activision in a statement to VG247, Infinite Warfare is still the biggest shooter launch of the year so far.

“According to GFK, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is the #1 shooter/action game week one launch of 2016 in the U.K.”

Battlefield 1 dropped down to no. 2, followed by FIFA 17 and Skyrim. You can check out this week’s top 10 titles below.

The image above was shared by RedditorDaJeroen and shows an area where it was possible to glitch outside the map in the original build of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Doing so led you to a mounted machine gun, for some reason, so it’s not clear if Infinity Ward knew about the original glitch point.

Anyway, in the version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare available with special editions of Infinite Warfare, this and many other little tricks have been foiled. On the one hand, hooray, nice clean play. On the other, aww.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/07/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-acknowledges-classic-map-glitch-with-wet-floor-sign/feed/0Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reviews round-up – can this old dog handle new tricks?http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/04/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-reviews-can-this-old-dog-handle-new-tricks/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/04/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-reviews-can-this-old-dog-handle-new-tricks/#respondFri, 04 Nov 2016 04:19:35 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606743Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is going boldly where the franchise has never gone before. But will it leave behind what made it great?

Not too many big outlets had a full review ready for the embargo today. Disclosures show some are based on a Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare review event, rather than live play, and there are a few “in progress” articles in there pending the servers going live.

From what I’ve read, skimming over the few critiques below, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a lot more like a classic Call of Duty than all the science fiction stuff might have suggested, but the new setting opens up unexplored story opportunities. For some critics this is a point worth praising, while for others it’s a bit of a downer since they’d like to see something new from the campaign.

Well, it’s all subjective, innit? Check out the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reviews below, find a voice most closely aligned with your preferences, and be informed. Assuming you didn’t pre-order six months ago, of course.

All scores out of ten except where otherwise noted. We’ll add more Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reviews as they come in; feel free to share those you’ve found helpful in the comments so everyone can check ’em out.

When first announced in September, the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Jackal Assault VR Experience was described as “free for all PS4 Infinite Warfare players”, which turns out to be not quite correct. As detailed in a post on the Activision blog, it will in fact “be available to all PS4 owners, not just for players who have purchased the game, as a free, added bonus”.

That’s a lovely change, Activision; very generous. If you own a PlayStationVR unit, simply grab the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Jackal Assault VR Experience from the PlayStation Store when it goes live alongside Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, releasing later today (depending on your timezone).

No word on whether the demo will come to PC and other VR headsets, but cross your fingers.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/04/you-dont-need-to-buy-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-to-try-the-psvr-experience/feed/0If you buy Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare PC from the Windows 10 store, you can’t play with anyone on Steamhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/if-you-buy-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-pc-from-the-windows-10-store-you-cant-play-with-anyone-on-steam/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/if-you-buy-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-pc-from-the-windows-10-store-you-cant-play-with-anyone-on-steam/#respondThu, 03 Nov 2016 22:53:29 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606711Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on the Windows Store is a bad bargain.

I wouldn’t normally seek to influence your purchasing decision, but a recent update to the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Windows 10 FAQ at Activision Support has revealed a pretty damning little quirk of this specific version.

Basically, if you have the Windows 10 version of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, you can only play with people who also purchased their copy from the Windows 10 store. Those who bought from Steam, or bought a code or boxed copy and activated it through Steam, will be excluded from matchmaking with you. The restriction applies to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, too.

I hope I don’t need to explain how detrimental this is likely to be. Whenever you build barriers and split the audience for a multiplayer game, you’re chopping off its legs. The smaller the pool of people you have to play with, the longer it takes to find matches. The less competitive the scene becomes. The shorter the lifespan of the game.

While you might argue that this restriction affects Steam users as well, cutting them off from potential teammates and opponents using the Windows 10 build, the Windows 10 audience is almost certainly going to be much smaller than Steam’s. Steam is the dominant PC platform, hands down. Windows 10 Store buyers will definitely get short shrift.

One can only hope this is some sort of tragic error and will be corrected either before or soon after Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare launches later today – for the sake of those who might have already purchased from the Windows 10 Store without knowing of this rubbish restriction.

I assume this situation has come about because of some restriction on the Windows 10 Store for third-party games, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for end users. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare doesn’t have cross-play between Windows 10 and Xbox Live, so there’s no actual benefit to purchasing the Windows 10 build as far as I can see. Amazing.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/if-you-buy-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-pc-from-the-windows-10-store-you-cant-play-with-anyone-on-steam/feed/0Blizzard had biggest quarterly online player community in history thanks to Overwatch and World of Warcrafthttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/blizzard-had-biggest-quarterly-online-player-community-in-history-thanks-to-overwatch-and-world-of-warcraft/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/blizzard-had-biggest-quarterly-online-player-community-in-history-thanks-to-overwatch-and-world-of-warcraft/#respondThu, 03 Nov 2016 20:42:12 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606690In its Q3 2016 financials report, Activision-Blizzard revealed that thanks to Overwatch and World of Warcraft, Blizzard had the highest quarterly online player community in its history with 42 million monthly active users.

This figure is up 25% quarter-over-quarter and 50% year-over-year (yoy), meaning Blizzard has more than doubled its monthly active users (MAU) in just two years.

Blizzard had all-time engagement records with record weekly and daily active users, unique users and play time, and users of the World of Warcraft: Legion Companion App number in the millions with users logging in on average four-five times per day. Blizzard doesn’t report subscriber numbers, opting for MAU instead. It stopped revealing sub numbers a year ago this month.

The company mentioned in the release that Overwatch became Blizzard’s fastest game ever to reach over 20 million players globally, also previously reported.

The two latest events in Overwatch have shown a great model for content, said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, and more events like the Summer Games and Halloween will come in the future.

Overwatch continued to hold the number one position in share of play time in Korean Internet Game Rooms from launch all the way through the third-quarter, and Hearthstone had record quarterly MAU, with a double-digit percentage yoy.

Acti-Blizz Q3 2016

World of Warcraft: Legion sold 3.3 million day one.

Overwatch has 20 million players.

Blizzard MAU hit a record 42 million.

Destiny: Rise of Iron had increased MAU compared to Q2 2016.

Destiny 2 still in the works, will appeal to current, new and lapsed players.

MAU as a whole for Activision hit a record 46 million during the quarter, the highest in company history, growing MAU by 18% in the last two years. Combined, customers played over 10 billion hours worth of the company’s games during Q3. With Blizzard games taken into account the company reported 482 million MAU.

The Call of Duty franchise reached record third quarter MAU for the period, and the Rise of Iron expansion for Destiny saw increased MAU compared to the last quarter.

Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg said Destiny 2 was still in the works, and that it would appeal to current, new and lapsed players. He would not be drawn on when to expect a release, nor when a release date would be revealed.

Activision Blizzard’s esports network, Major League Gaming, in partnership with Facebook, recorded about 50 million views, growing 67% quarter-over-quarter. At peak, a record 11 million users were reached in a single day. The Call of Duty World League Championship recorded 121 million views.

The Financial End

Revenues from in-game content reached nearly $1 billion in Q3 2016, led by World of Warcraft: Legion, Overwatch’s Summer Games content, and the One Night in Karazhan Adventure for Hearthstone which performed better than its predecessor.

The number of in-game content purchasers in Call of Duty more than doubled year-to-date, and average revenue per customer also increased with Season Pass and a-la-carte map packs purchases.

For the third quarter ending September 30, Activision-Blizzard net revenues came to $1.57 billion, up 58% compared to $990 million during Q3 2015.

Digital revenue for the quarter hit a record $1.34 billion, up 18% over the last quarter and 114% yoy. Net revenue came in at $1.10 billion, up 15% yoy and $444 million in operating income, a 78% increase yoy.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/blizzard-had-biggest-quarterly-online-player-community-in-history-thanks-to-overwatch-and-world-of-warcraft/feed/0You can disable double-jumps and wallruns in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s private matcheshttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/you-can-disable-double-jumps-and-wallruns-in-call-of-duty-infinite-warfares-private-matches/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/you-can-disable-double-jumps-and-wallruns-in-call-of-duty-infinite-warfares-private-matches/#respondThu, 03 Nov 2016 09:29:12 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606560If you want to keep the fight on the ground in Infinite Warfare, you’ll be able to do so in private matches.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare doesn’t release until tomorrow, but early copies have been available for a couple of days now. Some of the few things hidden in the game’s menus are options to disable two of the most controversial features.

There’s an option to disable the ability to double-jump, and another to prevent wallrunning. These are only available in private matches, however, as you can see in the image below via Reddit.

There are other options, too, such as the ability to host a headshot-only mode, disable scorestreaks, payloads, and more. At present, it’s unclear if Infinity Ward will include a playlist without advanced movements.

When Advanced Warfare released, developer Sledgehammer added an Exo-free playlist that included all maps and a few modes. Given the outcry against advanced movement has been the loudest this year, it’s very likely we’ll be seeing something similar with Infinite Warfare.

As detailed on the Activision Blog, Specialist mode is unlocked after beating Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on any difficulty. It’s designed to be “intensely realistic and not for the faint of heart”, and has the following restrictions:

Np health regeneration. Healing from Nano Shots only.

Helmets take permanent damage and need to be replaced.

Nano Shots and helmets take up equipment slots.

Movement impacted by receiving leg shots.

Aim down sights and equipment use affected by receiving arm shots.

Enemies can shoot weapons out of your hands.

Activision said mastering Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s cover mechanics will be key to surviving this mode. Lessons learned will stand you in good stead for the next new difficulty mode, YOLO, which offers permadeath – one life only. You need to complete Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s campaign in Specialist mode to unlock YOLO mode.

Sometimes I forget Call of Duty has single-player campaigns, because the multiplayer seems to overshadow everything. Now that it’s gone all sci-fi maybe I’ll even give Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare a go.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/03/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-has-an-intensely-realistic-specialist-difficult-and-a-permadeath-yolo-mode/feed/0Buy a PS4 this weekend in North America, get Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare freehttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/02/buy-a-ps4-this-weekend-in-north-america-get-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-free/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/02/buy-a-ps4-this-weekend-in-north-america-get-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-free/#respondWed, 02 Nov 2016 19:03:13 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606498If you’re in the market for a PlayStation 4, select retailers in Canada and North America will have a rather nice deal available over the weekend.

To celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Sony is offering the game free of charge to anyone who buys a PS4 Slim November 4-5. The console will run you $299.99/$379.99, and you will be getting a free game on top of it.

There’s also the Uncharted 4 PS4 Slim bundle available for $299.99, and you will also get a copy of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare when purchased. So, that’s two games to go with your new console. Not a bad deal if you are wanting one anyway.

The US PS Blog doesn’t have a list of shops offering the deal, so you will have to check with your local retailer.

Again, the deal is only available this weekend, November 4-5.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/02/buy-a-ps4-this-weekend-in-north-america-get-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-free/feed/0Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered pre-load live on Steamhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/02/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-and-modern-warfare-remastered-pre-load-live-on-steam/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/02/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-and-modern-warfare-remastered-pre-load-live-on-steam/#respondWed, 02 Nov 2016 09:10:31 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606431You’re going to need all the time you can get to download these two big Call of Duty games.

Activision has made Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered available for pre-load on Steam, a couple of days before the launch on Friday.

The pre-load is available to anyone who pre-purchased the game, and the combined size for both is pretty big. Infinite Warfare is just over 74GB. As for Modern Warfare Remastered, it’s split between two downloads, one for the single-player at 44.87GB and another for multiplayer that’s 25.11GB – for a total of around 70GB.

So, if you’re a Legacy or Legacy Pro edition owner, you’re looking at a just below 140GB of downloads. Since the pre-load went live last night, there may not be enough time for some players to grab everything, so you’d best choose one of the two to download first.

It’s also worth noting that, more than likely, you’ll need both parts of the Modern Warfare Remastered package before it lets you play either. That’s how it usually is with Call of Duty games every year, unless Activision finally changed things this year.

Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered release this Friday on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

In the video shared by Activision today, Harrington discusses playing a villain, which is a career first, and it also gives you a look at his motion capture sessions. Perfect for ladies and gents interesting in seeing the fella in a stretchy suit with markers all over him.

You will have to visit the link above to watch the video as there isn’t a share option, and it isn’t up on the official Call of Duty YouTube channel just yet.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare releases for PC, PS4 and Xbox One next week on November 4.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/01/game-of-thrones-kit-harington-discusses-playing-a-villain-in-latest-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-video/feed/0Watch over 20 minutes of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Zombies in Spaceland modehttp://www.vg247.com/2016/11/01/watch-over-20-minutes-of-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-zombies-in-spaceland-mode/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/01/watch-over-20-minutes-of-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-zombies-in-spaceland-mode/#respondTue, 01 Nov 2016 13:04:34 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606273One of the less talked-about aspects of Infinite Warfare, Zombies in Spaceland, gets a new livestream.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare comes with co-op Zombies mod, a first for developer Infinity Ward. It’s called Zombies in Spaceland and it starts four heroes who get transformed into a zombie-filled nightmare as characters they were auditioning for.

The mode represents Infinity Ward’s take on very popular Zombies mode, and the studio hosted a livestream yesterday to show it off one more time. The show kicked off with the opening cut-scene you’ll be watching in the game, explaining the backstory.

The rest of the stream, which you can see an archive of above via GamersPrey HD, goes on to show gameplay for about 20 minutes. The developers talk about the ATM system, which allows you to bank your earnings so you don’t lose them after death.

The afterlife feature is also discussed, and Infinity Ward says the goal was to make it entertaining so you’re not just spectating other players. There’s more details in there about traps, and some of the enemy types you’ll be facing.

Some of that 130GB requirement obviously includes future patches and DLC, but when it comes to the files you’ll be downloading in time for launch, the total is not actually that big.

As reported by Charlie Intel, for PlayStation 4, the Infinite Warfare download will vary depending on your region, so you’re looking at 44.6GB-53.6GB. For Modern Warfare Remastered, the download is going to be 37.2GB.

As for Xbox One, 52.1GB is what you’ll need for Infinite Warfare, and 45.85GB for Modern Warfare Remastered. Pre-load is available on both platforms now for both games.

There’s currently no word on the PC version pre-load. Judging by Black Ops 3’s launch last year, however, you’re probably looking at a 24 hours head start.

Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered will release on November 4.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/01/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-and-modern-warfare-remastered-file-sizes-revealed-for-ps4-xbox-one/feed/0You can play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered multiplayer on PS4 and Xbox One right nowhttp://www.vg247.com/2016/10/31/you-can-play-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-multiplayer-on-ps4-and-xbox-one-right-now/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/10/31/you-can-play-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-remastered-multiplayer-on-ps4-and-xbox-one-right-now/#respondMon, 31 Oct 2016 23:06:32 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606224Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered multiplayer servers are online now.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered officially releases alongside Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare later this week, but Activision and Infinity Ward seem to have activated the servers early, meaning you can play right now.

Although there’s been no comment or announcement from Activision or Infinity Ward and we haven’t fired it up ourselves, plenty of people claim to be playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered already. Streams and videos are being hammered with takedowns, but browse the #MWRemastered hashtag on Twitter to see plenty of discussion, screens and more.

At present access is limited to those who have pre-ordered Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition on PS4, allowing them to pre-install Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, and anybody who happens to have an early retail copy of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition on Xbox One.

Infinite Warfare, obviously, requires more capable hardware, increasing the specs almost across the board. As for Modern Warfare Remastered, the details reveal a 55GB of hard drive space requirement. This will only increase with DLC and future updates, according to the publisher. 70GB for Infinite Warfare and another 50GB for Modern Warfare Remastered is a total of 120GB at launch.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is out this week and if you played the beta, you’ll have seen that supply drops are back, but there’s something not quite right this time around.

YouTuber Drift0r breaks it down in his video but the long and short of it is that the weapon variants in the supply drops have very few – if any – stat penalties making them superior to their run-of-the-mill counterparts.

The better weapon variants appear to be predominantly found in the rare supply drops which you can “buy” with salvage. Salvage is earned as you play and the rate at which you get it was increased for the beta which is noteworthy because it takes bloody ages to collect enough for a supply drop, so be prepared for it to take even longer in the full game.

But luckily, you can skip all of that noise and just buy supply drops with real money.

You could say that the progressions towards pay-to-win has been as inevitable as it has been insidious. As soon as weapons started appearing in supply drops, it was only a matter of time before players would be incentivised to start dropping cash on them, and it seems to have come to a head with Infinite Warfare bundling up the better weapon variants in supply drops that it would take an age to unlock without spending money on them.

Of course the counterargument will always be that you don’t have to spend that money but that doesn’t detract from the pay-to-win model that could be being introduced.

Whether or not there’ll be some tweaks made to balance these weapon variants remains to be seen, but it’s a shame that games like Titanfall 2, with its free DLCs and glowing reviews are floundering , while franchises that are embracing a plethora of microtransactions continue to thrive despite the majority of players finding fault with such practices.

If the full game cuts back the scrap earn rate as planned and doesn’t address the stats of the supply drop weapons, there are going to be some serious balancing issues and if you refuse to buy into the microstransactions, you’re most likely going to get trounced in the multiplayer.

I guess we’ll see how this is going to pan out when the game releases on November 4.

What are your thoughts on Infinite Warfare’s microtransactions? Has it swayed your decision to pick it up? Let us know in the comments.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2016/10/31/are-call-of-duty-infinite-warfares-supply-drops-turning-the-multiplayer-into-pay-to-win/feed/0Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare will have even deadlier shotguns than the beta – see what else is changinghttp://www.vg247.com/2016/10/31/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-will-have-even-deadlier-shotguns-than-the-beta-see-what-else-is-changing/
http://www.vg247.com/2016/10/31/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-will-have-even-deadlier-shotguns-than-the-beta-see-what-else-is-changing/#respondMon, 31 Oct 2016 03:08:15 +0000https://www.vg247.com/?p=606109Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta feedback and data has brought about a rebalance.

Before we dive into nitty-gritty of weapon balance and other gameplay tweaks, here are a couple of general comments on what’s changing in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare based on beta feedback.

On the topic of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s matchmaking, Infinity Ward highlighted four problems that made the beta more frustrating than it needed to be. Apparently the beta was too strict about testing connection times, was incorrectly categorising players by geographic region, and was slowing down in-progress match joins. All of these were addressed over the course of the beta. Issues with cleaning up dead lobbies were also identified, and clearing them out should speed up match searches.

Infinity Ward also said that it’s testing a new dedicated server allocation system with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. This wasn’t working super well at the start of the beta but was fixed for the second weekend.

The last general note regarding the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta was that TTK (time to kill) wasn’t well received. Infinity Ward said the matchmaking and dedicated server tweaks described above, as well as the weapon tuning below, should address that and ensure a better balance. Goodness knows what a Call of Duty fan considers a reasonable TTK: coming from Destiny PvP, the whole thing seems bonkers fast to me.

Anyway, here are the post-beta rebalance notes for Call of Duty: infinite Warfare.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare weapon balance changes

Shotguns

Increased the consistency of shotgun damage.

Shotgun damage at longer range has been increased.

Slightly increased the one shot kill range.

Both the Reaver and Banshee have received a slight bonus to their 1 trigger pull kill range.

Snipers

Bullet spread at the hip no longer gets smaller as the player ADS’s. Once the scope reaches the player’s eye, the bullet spread goes instantly to zero.

Sniper aim assist was reduced slightly for the KBS Longbow and the other bolt action snipers. Our turn rate while Aimed Down Sights is still slowed to help with precision aiming.

Sniper-class weapons no longer have any Aim Assist until the optic fully reaches the player’s eye.

For the ELO and Scout optics on snipers, the idle sway while ADS has been increased along with the player’s view bounce when moving. Because these optics are less zoomed in, the view bounce and the sway are felt less. These changes are to promote more stationary aiming and firing with these optics.

The Tracking Chip optic’s visuals have been improved.

Reduced bonus of the Quickdraw attachment on snipers.

Updated snipers to have more flinch when getting shot.

Launchers

The Howitzer Grenade launcher can now be fired from the hip instead of requiring full ADS

SMGs

The RPR Evo epic variant (Ripper) has had a tuning pass to increase recoil given its bonus fire rate

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare mode changes

Defender
When carrying the Drone, the score-per-second bonus has been bumped from 5 score per second to 10 score per second. Scorestreak carrier bonus is unaffected.

Gun Game
Now features all classic weapons. In future updates, weapons with alternate functions will retain their state upon spawn.

Domination
When you step off a flag, the current capture bar progress starts to decay. The rate of this decay has been halved from the Beta. This allows players to hop off a flag to defend it and then get back on the flag with less progress loss

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare general changes

Perks and rigs

Marksman – We fixed a bug where, in addition to reducing flinch, it was also reducing recoil. This would then stack with Gun Perks and the Foregrip Attachment. This bonus reduction has been removed.

Momentum – Fixed issues with speed not being retained

Marked Target – The temporary red marker on the victim has been toned down

Health and regen changes

Health Regen time has been reduced.

Infusion bonus reduced.

Continuing to refine spawn system on beta maps, will assess remaining launch maps in live environment.

Economy changes

Increased salvage gain in mission teams.

Changed currency value in supply drops.

Increased drop rate of keys in round-based modes.

Scorestreaks

AP-3X

Increased health, bullet damage, and weapon accuracy up close to help with target acquisition